


Middle School Dances are for Nerds

by PineappleMystery



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: More characters to be added as they appear - Freeform, im still writing this so idk, who will max wind up with?!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 02:17:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11281677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineappleMystery/pseuds/PineappleMystery
Summary: It's time for the end of the year school dance, and everyone is scrambling to find a date.Isaac has the worst luck, Johnny gets into shenanigans, Max doesn't know what to do, and Lisa makes bank in the school store betting pool.





	Middle School Dances are for Nerds

**Author's Note:**

> this is literally the first fic i wrote for paranatural lmao ive been working on it on and off for like a year and its changed a lot but i like it a lot better now so i hope you enjoy :)

The thing about middle school is that it is awful. The teachers, the other annoying kids, the awkward transition into puberty and the crippling self-consciousness that accompanied it; and of course the added bonus of being a spirit spectral and all the duties and challenges that went with it.Isaac knew this well.  As an awkward middle schooler and medium, he didn’t actually mind being possessed by a powerful weather spirit with a god complex. The redhead liked being able to help people, and having cool superpowers, like the protagonists of his favorite television shows. And he wasn’t alone. He had his friends in the activity club to help him with ghosts and spirits, and hang out with after school- though they usually just teased him and kept secrets from him. Life was relatively good, he thought.

The only real bump in the road was when another kid from school became a spectral, a few days after Max showed up. Not only was this new kid a spectral, but he was a _medium_ , just like Isaac, to an old and powerful fire-type spirit. It felt like the whole club immediately liked him more than they had ever liked Isaac, and he knew then that they’d never get along. It was their similarities and the club’s obvious favoritism to the new spectral that upset him.

It didn’t help that the new kid was a redhead just like him, either, although it was probably dyed.

Isaac really, really did _not_ like Johnny Jhonny.

For weeks he stewed in anger and kept his distance as much as he could from Mr. Spender, Isabel, Ed, and the new spectral. But not from Max, even though Max seemed to like the new spectral more than him, too. It hurt to think about, that Isaac wasn’t Max’s new best friend like he’d hoped.  

But the end of the year was approaching fast, and that meant eighth grade graduation and then the start of high school. Not being in the Activity club would mean a lot of distance between him and the others, even if they would be joining him in a year. He was leaving them behind, and then he’d be alone. Doorman helped in his own way, but Isaac didn’t want to leave his friends, even in the loose sense of the word, behind.

And of course there was also the other problem that the end of the school year brought, the single biggest event in middle school: the Eighth Grade Dance. Isaac _desperately_ wanted to go, but he had few friends in the eighth grade and he didn’t really want to go with any of them. No, he wanted to go with someone special. He wanted to go with his kind-of-but-not-really-though-he-wished-otherwise-best-friend Max. But not as almost-friends. Or even people-who-hung-out-all-the-time-and-teased-each-other-and-genuinely-liked-the-others-company-friends.

He took health class, just like everyone else in the eighth grade. He knew about feelings and kissing and getting married and all the other things people did. Isaac considered himself to be quite mature for his age, too! So why was it still so embarrassing to admit that he had a crush?

Well it was a HUGE crush.

On another boy.

On his best friend, who probably never thought about other boys the way he did, Isaac worried. But Isaac was nothing short of a trier, and he hated hiding how he felt, so by goodness he was gonna give this crazy thing called love a shot, even if he died. From embarrassment. Or possibly an epic spirit battle protecting all his friends, where he’d be praised as a hero by a tearful eyed activity cub before dying dramatically in Max’s arms. Or just plain old embarrassment, as was more likely.

And that was why he was standing before the Puckett Family Corner Store on a warm spring morning, nervous to enter. He had the two tickets he bought to the dance in his pocket for weeks, and today was the day he was going to work up the courage to just ask the other boy to go with him on their shared walk/bus ride to school. After all, it didn’t have to be a _date_ , right? It could just be two bros going to the dance together and hanging out. It wasn’t weird. Max wouldn’t think he was gross and then stop talking to him for forever, right? He steeled himself as he entered the store, determination, nervousness, and a bit of hope in his eyes.

_Here goes nothing_ , he thought.

 

* * *

 

Max was surprised by how easy it was to fall into routine after moving to Mayview. Granted it was strange, and terribly dangerous, but it was a routine nonetheless. Everyday he would go to school, fight some spirits, go home, do his homework, and entertain PJ or his dad and Zoey before he went to bed. As mundane as it was, no two days were the same as the spirits of Mayview proved. Not that the human side of Mayview wasn’t just as interesting. Mayview Middle seemed like the crazy capitol of the world to him, with the eccentric over the top teachers and the host of weird kids he called friends. Even the non-spectral friends were amusingly odd and quirky. Some of them he thought were just plain crazy, though.

After the hectic first few weeks where he discovered that ghosts exist and he had psychic ghost powers, the customary spirit fight of the week was a breeze to him. Well that and he and the others had been forced to train at Isabel’s grandfather's dojo on the weekends. Not that the others needed it or anything, but he supposed it helped their teamwork or something cliche like that. He knew that the Spec Shot((C) Isabel Guerra) had saved his butt on more than one occasion- once he was shamed into doing it right by her grandpa, that is.

Johnny Jhonny definitely didn’t need the training. The kid was a walking violence machine and being a medium to some kind of fire spirit did _not_ help, like at all. It was quite a shock to Max when the club found him surrounded by raging fires and shouting gibberish about seeing purple things everywhere he looked. Max thanked god Mr. Spender dealt with that before Johnny burned the whole town down, or killed himself. But ever since then Johnny and his gang had forced themselves into the activity club, and the redhead himself would not. leave. Max. _alone_.

He supposed that having Johnny constantly annoying him was better than Johnny constantly beating him up. And while he wouldn’t admit it to their faces, Johnny and his little gang of oddballs were fun to hang out with, and they definitely made after school club meetings more interesting. Johnny especially, considering he was a freaking real-life fire bender and loved showing it off at any and every opportunity. He gave a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘being hot-headed’. It was fun.

Max thought about what life-threatening disaster they’d deal with today as he ran down the stairs of his house-slash-general store. As usual Isaac was buying a gross semi-vegan breakfast bar, and nodding along in the right places to his dad’s daily nonsensical stories while waiting for Max.

“Isaac.” Max deadpanned, vaulting over the small counter with ease.

“Max.” Isaac replied.

“Sir Dad Puckett.” Dad butted in, interrupting his own rant mid-word.

“Dad, stop.”

“Isaac!” Shouted Zoey as she too bounded down the stairs and into the shop, stopping right in front of the surprised teenager. She gave him a wide scraggly-toothed smile.

“Oh, um, hi, Zoey.” He said, surprised.

“Is Isabel here too?” She asked, standing on her toes to look around him at the rest of the little corner store.

“Uh, no, it’s just me today.”

“Oh.” Zoey immediately turned back around with a disinterested flair, and walked back upstairs. Isaac rolled his eyes and turned to Max, accepting his change from Max’s dad, rant resumed with no signs of stopping.

“Why does she like Isabel so much?” He questioned.

Max snorted amusingly. “I wondered the same thing. When I asked, she told me, and I quote,” He pitched his voice high to imitate his little sister’s, “‘Isabel is so cool I wish I had her as a sibling instead of you!’. Since I am cooler and more awesome than everyone in this entire town, I am deeply offended.” He sighed dramatically, feigning hurt.

“Yeah, of course.” Isaac stated with a roll of his eyes. Pocketing his change, he turned to walk out of the little store.

Max waved back at his dad as he left, automatic doors closing behind them. He followed the other spectral across the sidewalk and flopped down onto the concrete. “Says you, Mr. Bishonen Anime Guy.”

Isaac gave a long suffering groan. “Max, you don’t even know what that means.”

“Yeah, but you do you freaking anime nerd.”

The redhead leaned on the rails that safeguarded pedestrians from tumbling down the hillside and looked down at the spiraling roads crawling up and down the mountain, admiring the exotic paranormal life that called Mayview home. A few roads away he spotted the bus trudging through its daily route, stopping occasionally to let kids on as it headed up the slopes. “Did you want to take the bus today or the shortcut?” he asked.

Max lazily stared into the sky as he considered the question. “Let’s take the bus. I don’t feel like walking today. Or running into some hostile spirits. Or running from said hostile spirits.”

Sitting down next to Max, Isaac hummed agreement. It seemed like every time they went to visit Doorman they ran into trouble; he still had bruises from last week's harrowing adventure. They sat in companionable silence for a few moments, enjoying the rare quiet.

_This is it Isaac,_ he thought to himself, _this is the moment you’ve been waiting for._ He fidgeted nervously, hands in his lap. _It’s now or never, and if it he laughs at you you can just run away and take the shortcut to school instead of the bus. And never talk to Max again. Perfect plan._ He was starting to sweat nervously.

_No_ , he told himself, _I HAVE to do it._ He wasn’t going to chicken out, no matter how much he feared Max’s rejection. If it all went wrong then he’d just have to deal with it and go to the dance by himself, or with some of his other friends, or even not at all. But he’d really, really prefer to go with Max, and dance with him, and laugh and joke with him, maybe even hold his hand...

“Yo, Earth to Isaac, you there?” Said hand was waving in front of his face. He realized that he had been caught daydreaming by his friend.  

“O-oh! Yeah, yeah, just thinkin’ about something.” Isaac cleared his throat, faking nonchalance. Max looked unimpressed at the other boy’s lie, but lowered his hand anyway.

He shrugged, “Whatever dude,” and turned away to continue to gaze at the sky. There was no clouds in sight, a nice cool breeze flowing by to offset the heat of the sun. Out of the corner of Max’s eye he saw the medium scoot towards him timidly.

“Um, actually, I wanted to ask you something.”

“‘Kay. Shoot.” Max turned to focus on the other boy beside him, calm in a way that Isaac rarely saw, but always sent butterflies to his stomach.

More fidgeting followed as Isaac drudged up the courage to ask the question that had been plaguing him for weeks. His pocket the dance tickets had called home felt like it was being burned from the inside out. Self-consciously he tugged them out to show Max, avoiding his gaze as he clumsily asked the million dollar question, blush staining to his face and ears.

“Um, there’s this dance at the end of the year, and like the whole school goes, and I was wondering ifmaybeyou’dwanttogowithme?” Isaac’s blush became more heated as he talked until his face looked as red as Isabel’s spectral energy, displaying the two crumpled tickets in his hands for Max to see.

“All I heard was something about a school dance.” Max’s eyes dropped to the paper held in the other’s hand, eyebrows raising as he examined the paper. “Are those tickets to it? _Wait_ ,” he asked with dawning realization, “did you just ask me to go with you? To a _school dance_?”

Isaac couldn’t make eye contact as he nodded _yes, I want to go to the dance with you_.

“Dude. _Dude_.” Max stated in a surprised tone. “One, I don’t do school spirit, and I mean the preppy kind not the fighty kind; and Two, I _definitely_ don’t go to school dances. It would ruin my cool brooding cynical persona I got going on.” he explained, gesturing to himself, eyebrows raised in distaste over the whole idea.

Then distaste gave way to amusement, as the explanation for Isaac's weird behavior around him the last few days was finally revealed. Max never _ever_ missed an opportunity to tease the easily annoyed boy next to him, no matter how many times he got shocked, blown away, or rained on as a result.

Trying to suppress a grin but failing, eyes sparkling, he said, “Not to mention that that’s like, really gay. Asking another boy to go to a dance with you, I mean. But hey, I don’t judge bro. Love is love and all that.” He couldn’t help the shit-eating grin as he looked over at Isaac, barely keeping his snickering at bay.  

Isaac didn’t look like he was about to murder him, which was good because Max was afraid he could have actually hurt his feelings, which he wasn’t trying to do. Instead Isaac just looked super embarrassed, which Max found just hilarious. He burst into laughter despite his friend's’ clear chagrin over his amusement.

“Oh my god Max just shut uuuuuuup. I meant it _as friends_ ,” Isaac groaned as he covered his face in his hands. He _knew_ it was a bad idea, asking Max to the dance, and now he would never stop teasing him about it! What he said was a lie of course, he meant it as more than friendly, romantic even, but to avoid even more teasing he’d keep his big fat crush on Max to himself, _thank-you-very-much_.

“Ha, you should see your face right now! You look like an over ripe tomato!” Max wiped a tear of laughter out of his eye and sighed, becoming serious. “Seriously, though, I’m not really into dances.” Max said plainly. It was silent for a few minutes, Isaac turned to the street to try to hide his self-conscious and hurt over the clear rejection. Max watched him, concern and unease growing in the silence as he realized he may have been just a tad bit too brash with his words. After a moment he quietly he added, “You should ask Isabel or Ed, though. They’d probably be excited to go, if you didn’t want to go alone.”

“Yeah, sure.” Isaac tried not to sulk too obviously, but he wasn’t very good at hiding his emotions. An awkward silence filled the space around them, no spirits or zany antics breaking up the embarrassing moment like they both hoped. Max whistled a short tune.

“So, um,” he started, “did you really want to go with _me_? Like, as in just the two of us? Cuz if so I-”

It was at that moment the school bus pulled up and came to a screeching halt at the curbside, startling them both and interrupting the shorter boy.

Isaac finally turned to Max, vulnerably hopeful, “What? I didn’t catch that.”

“Naw it’s cool let’s just go to school now,” Max said quickly, a light blush on his cheeks as he stood. Isaac was too preoccupied with composing himself for the bus ride notice Max’s less than graceful behavior. The conversation died out as the two boys got lost in their own thoughts, climbing onto the bus and riding to school with their classmates and friends.

 

* * *

 

“...and that’s why it’s shaped like a triangle, because the reptilian overlords’ _worship_ _Pythagoras’ theorem_. Learning about it in math class is playing right into their scaly hands!” Stephen gestured dramatically along to his speech while RJ walked beside him, Johnny leading the way and Ollie following behind the group.

“Sounds bout right to me.” Ollie spoke up.

“Naw man, it’s totally spirits. Or like the ghosts of dead mathemagicians haunting the entire country’s school boards or somethin’.” insisted Johnny Jhonny once again.

Stephen groaned, “Everything is ‘ghosts this’ or ‘spirits that’ with you now-a-days, it’s so boring. Like, yeah ghosts are real but like where does the mind controlling sentient moss sent from Jupiter’s largest moon, Titan, to enslave the entire Earth come into play? How could ghosts even be enslaved, the shackles would just fall right off their wispy arms! It just doesn’t make any sense yo.” The others shared a look of exasperated fondness for their strange friend’s strange theories.

“Stephen, no offense, but YOU don’t make any sense. Like, not even one penny’s worth. At least we can punch ghosts and spirits and stuff.”

“Pfft, yeah, whatever. You’re just mad that I’m right.” Stephen crossed his arms, refusing to back down from his argument.

“Johnny, we can't punch the ghosts or even see them,” Ollie reasoned, “that’s like you and the activity club’s thing. We just see ya’ll fightin air. ‘S funny.”

“I guess so.” Johnny kind of forgot that his friends couldn’t see what he saw, sometimes. It probably was really funny to see him and the activity club swinging at empty space and being knocked around by nothing at all. He smiled at the thought.

“Most of the time though, you’re swooning over Max and tryin' to show off, usually setting your pants on fire, and that's hilarious,” deadpanned Ollie. RJ and Stephen joined in the teasing with silent giggling as their leader tripped and almost fell over in shock. The redhead turned to face his friends, the default mean scowl on his face not fazing the other bullies in the slightest.

“What?! Guys for the last time- I don’t have a crush on Max! I swear!” Johnny blushed as he thought of the short spectral, his scowl twisting up. “’S not like I think he’s even _cool_ with his stupid dumb face or stupid cool hat or his sweet flips and cool magnet powers or anythin'…”

The gang chuckled at their leaders’ blush and flimsy denial. “C’mon Johnny, we ain’t tryin’ to be mean or anythin'.” soothed Ollie, ever the mediator as the designated heart of the group. It was a little hypocritical of him to say, since he brought it up in the first place, but he just wanted what was best for Johnny. Even if Johnny didn’t know what that was yet.

Johnny turned to continue their leisurely walk to school, choosing to ignore their lighthearted jabs for now. He had _no_ idea what they were talking about. So what if he spent more time around the snarky boy than the other activity club kids, or even his True Heart Forever Boys recently? It not like he wanted to hang out with him all the time or hold his hand or listen to his dumb stories or whatever. Max wasn’t even that cool! And Johnny was frustrated enough with his own confusing thoughts, he didn't need his friends teasing him with their crazy theories and jokes.

Well, the moss people one could possibly be true, at least, he’d give Stephen that.

But him, bully scourge of the seventh grade, general menace and overall troublemaker, _an actual fire-bending ghost fighter_ , Johnny Jhonny, have a crush on the new kid, Maxwell Puckett? Not only did he _know_ that that wasn't true, but he'd punch the mouth in of anyone who dared to say it was so. At least he would, if it wasn't his friends sayin' so, and he’d never punch them.

A munching sound caught the redhead’s attention away from his brewing anger, alighting his curiosity. He looked down and saw that the source of the small noise was a tiny slimy bug-like spirit eating some weird garbage on the sidewalk in front of him. He stopped walking and stared at it, slightly grossed out. He could deal with the literal undead skeleton spirit birds that roosted on the roof of his house, but weird bugs? No thank you _sir_. He squinted at the garbage.

“Who in their right mind would eat 'semi-vegan breakfast bars'?” Johnny wondered to no one in particular. “Huh? Wait a second..” He shooed the tiny spirit away with a vigorous wave of his hand to reveal two red pieces of paper, decorated in cursive script and also a little bit of spirit snail slime. His friends, puzzled as to why he'd stopped, walked over to him crouching over the sidewalk.

“Whatcha lookin' at Johnny?” Stephen said while leaning over him to get a better view of the garbage. Ollie and RJ joined them in staring at the wrappers and papers on the ground.

He picked up the two red strips of paper carefully, examining them intently. “Looks like two tickets to the school dance.”

“Wonder why someone left them here, on the ground. Do you think some nerd tried to ask somebody out and then got rejected and threw them away?” pondered Ollie. Stephen nodded in agreement, the theory very plausible. The school dance was right around the corner, and everyone going who didn’t already have one was scrambling to secure last minute dates with crushes or friends. Johnny squeezed the tickets in his hand and smirked, a wild plan already forming in his head.

“Ya know what this means?” he asked dramatically to the air in front of him, standing up.

“You get to ask Max to the dance?”

“We get to terrorize the danc _\- wait what?_ ”

Ollie and Stephen looked at each other, ready to quell their leaders undoubted rage over RJs’ suggestion. It was weird to hear them talk when they didn’t have to, and they brought up Johnny’s very obvious, but fervently denied crush again? Things were about to get _serious_.

“What is with you guys today?? I already told you, _I don’t have a crush on Max_!” Johnny huffed out, small licks of flame forming on his shoulders, a physical manifestation of his irritation over the day’s badgering. Ollie and Stephen opened their mouths to point out the sparks, but RJ spoke first.

“Johnny, we just want what’s best for you. And watching you follow him around like a lost puppy gets real old after a while. This school dance would be the perfect opportunity to let him know how you feel about him. Even if he says no, we’ll be there for you; but honestly,”

The three boys stared at RJ, in surprised stupor at their mini speech.

“I think you have a real chance with him.”

Stunned, Johnny stared at his friend. Max, maybe liked _him_? He wasn’t even ready to admit he had a crush, and yet his crush could potentially _liked him back_?

He gaped silently for a few minutes, mind reeling from the possibilities. The gang stood by a little awkwardly, but trying to show all the concern and support a bunch of middle school boys were capable of. After a few minutes of quiet contemplation, Johnny looked to his friends, hunched in on himself and not quite meeting the eyes of his closest friends.

“But…” he said hesitantly, “what if… he doesn’t like me back?”

Ollie, Stephen, rushed to reassure their leader, quips of ‘No way!’ ‘You’re a catch!’ and ‘How could he not?!’s while RJ rested a hand on his shoulder, nodding along to their friends words. All of this brought a broad grin to Johnny’s face, his unease melting away for affection and thankfulness over his three best friends’ support.

“Yeah, so what if that nerd rejects you? We support you dawg.”

“Yeah! That little magneto kid don’t know how lucky he is!”

Johnny perked up, confidence and determination filling him up and making him feel like he could take on the world. He could always count on his friends to be there for him, and with them by his side there was nothing he couldn’t do!

“Yeah, you’re right! I’m _awesome_ and Max is _awesome_ too and we should _hold hands_! We make a great ghost punchin' team, who says we can’t be great boyfriends too?! Why, we get along so well that even if Max doesn't like me back, we could still hang out and be cool with each other!” Johnny stood tall, hands flailing through the air as he spoke more to himself than his friends. Ollie, RJ, and Stephen cheered him on, Stephen literally yelling as they all got pumped to help Johnny realize his feelings and self-worth.

As the gang’s over excitement intensified, Johnny climbed onto the safety rail behind him, having to catch his balance several times as he turned to face the others.

“Boys.” He said resolutely, turning the atmosphere surrounding the four kids from happily hyper to deadly serious in a moment. They gave their leader their absolute attention, hanging on his every word. “You three are my True Heart Forever Boys, and there is no one on the planet I’d rather friendship fusion with, or beat up nerds with, or share my deepest darkest secrets with while playing Mario Cart in Stephen’s basement with. But I’m gonna be honest with ya.”

He paused, a little uncertain, but quickly regained steam and continued his impromptu pep talk, literal steam rising off of him the more he talked.

“I just realized like a minute ago that I like Max, probably like love him or somethin', and I’m gonna use these dirty tickets I just found on ground to ask him to go to the school dance with me. But I need your help.” The redhead pointed at his three cohorts, “Will you, RJ, Stephen, and Ollie, help me ask him out?!” His brow was drawn down as he awaited their answer, wobbling a little on the fence he stood on, trying not to fall and tumble down the hill below.

RJ spoke first, with no hesitation. “Of course Johnny.”

“That little nerd will be knocked off his feet after we finish helping ya romance him.” Ollie stated, proud of his friend for accepting his feelings and reaching out to them for help.

“Just tell us what to do, and consider it done.” Stephen smirked. He liked Max well enough, and he’d do anything for his friend and leader.

“Alright!” Johnny beamed, his eyes lighting in warmth for his Forever Boys.

“We’re gonna need some things first. Follow me!” With an excited yelp he jumped off the railing and slid down the hillside, his gang of misfits hollering in laughter and excitement as they followed just a step behind him.


End file.
